What do you think of G4 now, and then when it was about gaming?

I think it's really nothing more than a Spike TV clone in disguise, and it manages to be inferior to a channel I really don't care about. Considering they don't have really any original shows and the ones they do have are pretty lame. I also can't stand Attack of the Show, especially the two hosts, they're both annoying cunts. Olivia Munn is hot, but half the she doesn't know what she's talking about and just there for blatant sex appeal.  I thought G4 was just an okay channel, back when it was about gaming. It wasn't great, but it certainly stood out and had potential to be better. I liked watching the Electric Playground, but I found Judgement Day annoying when Tommy Tallarico (Great music composer) often tries to hard to be funny and ends up being grating, he also makes absurd and ridiculous criticisms towards games. I did like watching Icons a lot back then, it really did go into far deep lengths to explain the history of iconic game franchises, developers, and certain aspects of gaming culture.  
 
I like the channel more, when it merged with one of my favorite channels back in the day: TechTV. Unfortunately, TechTV was bought out by G4 and shortly turned into a blatant SpikeTV clone. 
 
What are your thoughts about this channel?

I really miss Tech:Tv. I spent a week after having my wisdom teeth cut out, doped up on the couch sucking down pudding and codeine, and watching Tech:tv. 
And yeah, I hate Tommy Tallarico as a TV personality. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?
 
Here's something to make you think. If the Kane&Lynch fiasco ahd gone down 10 year ago, Ryan and Jeff might have ended up with TV SHOWS!

I fucking love Attack of the Show.

TechTV FOR LIFE

" TechTV FOR LIFE "

" I fucking love Attack of the Show. "

Every show was great back in the day but I can't watch any of the shows now.

I do remember when they were more gaming geared but maybe they just had bad ratings and wanted to try and spruce up the channel by playing NINJA FUCKING WARRIOR, etc. I do miss the documentaries about Will Wright and others. I will always love G4 though, just because of the Porn Expo, Ninja Warrior, and Attack of the Show.

" I do remember when they were more gaming geared but maybe they just had bad ratings and wanted to try and spruce up the channel by playing NINJA FUCKING WARRIOR, etc. I do miss the documentaries about Will Wright and others. I will always love G4 though, just because of the Porn Expo, Ninja Warrior, and Attack of the Show. "

It was shit before it ate TechTV, was tolerable while the last remnants of TechTV hung around, and then went back to being shit. Been like that for years now.

" It was shit before it ate TechTV, was tolerable while the last remnants of TechTV hung around, and then went back to being shit. Been like that for years now. "

Does anyone besides me remember TechTV when it looked like CNBC?  Hell, I remember when it was ZDTV.  They covered the NASDAC all day long with short news stories about Palm Pilots and Netscape Navigator.  That was back before the crash in '99.
 
I occasionally tune into AOTS and X-Play, but I miss the old G4 that had Tina Wood, Laura Foy and that guy with the soul patch chatting it up every week, (super hot) Diane Mizota counting down the Top-10 lists and a very odd adventure show that took place in various MMOs.  It wasn't the merger which killed either channel, it was the minute audience that couldn't sustain a games & tech focus network on national TV.  I don't like that G4 is now Spike TV 2.0, but that's what viewers seem to prefer.  Maybe not gamers, but the wider audience will watch reruns of Cops, Cheaters,  that Ninja show and the VH-1 styled Sexy Ladies show than will watch Wil Weaton do a play-by-play of Unreal Tournament GOTY.

 G4 was okay when I watched it around the merging, now I don't go to that station at all. Also I don't understand why people find Olivia Munn attractive.

I used to love tech tv and also initially when they merged together,  all these great gaming programing almost throught the day.  Now we only have AOTS which is not really about gaming no more and xplay which is the only good thing in G4.  I don't want to plug but if you guys are missing the G4 or the initial TechTV go to . 
 
www.revision3.com  most of the old ppl from g4 and tech are there doing what they use to do in G4

I don't know, I think it's really popular to hate G4 amongst jaded gamers. While a large majority of the channel's programming is reruns of Cops and Cheaters, shows like X-Play and Attack of the Show are harmless dumb fun. I think it's pretty significant that X-Play, a show dedicated to videogames, is on five times a week. There's not much else out there like it. In the end, it's just a goddamn tv channel, if you don't like it, guess what? There's lots more to choose from.  
 
TechTV breaking apart like it did was, in the end, a good thing when you consider what's come after it from many of those people including the TWiT network with Leo Laporte. 

" Does anyone besides me remember TechTV when it looked like CNBC?  Hell, I remember when it was ZDTV.  They covered the NASDAC all day long with short news stories about Palm Pilots and Netscape Navigator.  That was back before the crash in '99.
 
I occasionally tune into AOTS and X-Play, but I miss the old G4 that had Tina Wood, Laura Foy and that guy with the soul patch chatting it up every week, (super hot) Diane Mizota counting down the Top-10 lists and a very odd adventure show that took place in various MMOs.  It wasn't the merger which killed either channel, it was the minute audience that couldn't sustain a games & tech focus network on national TV.  I don't like that G4 is now Spike TV 2.0, but that's what viewers seem to prefer.  Maybe not gamers, but the wider audience will watch reruns of Cops, Cheaters,  that Ninja show and the VH-1 styled Sexy Ladies show than will watch Wil Weaton do a play-by-play of Unreal Tournament GOTY. "

" I don't know, I think it's really popular to hate G4 amongst jaded gamers. While a large majority of the channel's programming is reruns of Cops and Cheaters, shows like X-Play and Attack of the Show are harmless dumb fun. I think it's pretty significant that X-Play, a show dedicated to videogames, is on five times a week. There's not much else out there like it. In the end, it's just a goddamn tv channel, if you don't like it, guess what? There's lots more to choose from.   TechTV breaking apart like it did was, in the end, a good thing when you consider what's come after it from many of those people including the TWiT network with Leo Laporte.  "

" @DoctorOptimist:   Agreed about Filter's lists, but I liked them anyway. They're like reading any Top-10 list.  It's fodder for message board discussions.  Before I came to Giant Bomb, the G4 forums was where spent my internet time.  Of course, this is going back to that heyday in 2002-2003.  After the merger, I drifted away and wasn't visiting any website's community.  Either way, listening to those lists was no less ridiculous that the reviews by Tommy Tallarico.   Shits and giggles, man.  Plus, for the year end review, Mizota would cosplay. ;-D "

Arena used to be my favorite show.

I only watch the non-game shows. Ninja Warrior and Unbeatable Banzukai (Don't know the spelling).
 
The hosts aren't hot, and I do my game research on line. It's more convenient and in depth.

Remember ZDTV/TechTV? Whatever happened to Lauren Fielder?
 
 

When it was pure gaming, I didn't mind G4 at the time.  When it started to turn all "broish," then it started getting lame.

It used to be awesome when it had Filter, G4tv.com(the show), Arena, Cheat, cinematech, Xplay (when it did reviews only), and Judgement day.
 
Now it sucks and it only has 2 decent shows  Xplay and Attack of the show, and that isnt enough.
 
Final verdict good then sucks now.

" I was forced to sit through hours of G4 last sunday while playing MTG at my friend's... during the time I was there several reruns of COPS played, along with "Movies that Don't Suck" twice [1 of the movies they played was Predator 2, movies that dont suck MY ASS] & then live coverage of comic-con.  Not a single game-related bit of information in 6 hours.  This channel is a joke.  Unless I just always fantasized that it was about video games, & it never really was from the beginning.... Plus commercials just make television-watching unbearable & degrade the potential value of any show... TV is so 90s.  "

AOTS and X-Play are good.

It is hard to offer programming involving gaming that people will want to watch.  People want to play games, not watch them.  And with the 24/7 news cycle that the internet has created, people will not want to go to G4 to get their gaming news.  What I would like to see is keep the four hours of programming aday, but shake it up.  Have your Icons, but make it a small segment part of a larger show.  Have more interviews with the decision makers and creators of the games we play.  Have engaging discussions about the major issues the industry faces with people involved.  Bring the people behind the scenes to the forefront, and make them recognizable faces.
 
G4 does an amazing job at the big events, they get about a 140,000 average viewership the weeks of coverage of events like Comic Con and E3.  Some of that has trickled into their others shows, as everything in June was up from previous years, some in the double digits like X-Play.   Before the big shake up, their ratings were in the crapper, and the network was bleeding money.  All of that original programming is much more expensive to develop then simply selling time for syndication.  If the original programming has poor ratings, then you will not sell advertising space, which is the number one source for a networks revenue. 
 
G4 can live with its three to four hours a day original programming, but what they really need to do is shake up their syndicated programming.  Having as much Cops on that they do is absurd. 

" It is hard to offer programming involving gaming that people will want to watch.  People want to play games, not watch them.  And with the 24/7 news cycle that the internet has created, people will not want to go to G4 to get their gaming news.  What I would like to see is keep the four hours of programming aday, but shake it up.  Have your Icons, but make it a small segment part of a larger show.  Have more interviews with the decision makers and creators of the games we play.  Have engaging discussions about the major issues the industry faces with people involved.  Bring the people behind the scenes to the forefront, and make them recognizable faces. G4 does an amazing job at the big events, they get about a 140,000 average viewership the weeks of coverage of events like Comic Con and E3.  Some of that has trickled into their others shows, as everything in June was up from previous years, some in the double digits like X-Play.   Before the big shake up, their ratings were in the crapper, and the network was bleeding money.  All of that original programming is much more expensive to develop then simply selling time for syndication.  If the original programming has poor ratings, then you will not sell advertising space, which is the number one source for a networks revenue.  G4 can live with its three to four hours a day original programming, but what they really need to do is shake up their syndicated programming.  Having as much Cops on that they do is absurd.  "

" It used to be awesome when it had Filter, G4tv.com(the show), Arena, Cheat, cinematech, Xplay (when it did reviews only), and Judgement day.  Now it sucks and it only has 2 decent shows  Xplay and Attack of the show, and that isnt enough.  Final verdict good then sucks now. "

I've heard that G4 was much better back in the day but by the time I'd heard about the channel it was way too mainstream for me.

" I've heard that G4 was much better back in the day but by the time I'd heard about the channel it was way too mainstream for me. "

TechTV was pretty rad. It held so much more originality and variety than the current G4.